Halloween Look

Hi everyone,

It's almost Halloween, which is really exciting! I used to always love getting dressed up but the last few years I haven't done anything special for Halloween, so this year I decided I would change that. I practiced my make up last week and thought I should blog about it, since obviously involved using a lot of make up. It was a lot of fun to do, if not a little time consuming (30-45 minutes!). As you may or may not know, my skin is quite sensitive and I don't like using cream or liquid face products, so for this look I mostly used powders. It's a lot messier than if you were to use cream or liquid products, but I actually like that effect. Halloween looks are never meant to look perfect and clean. It's also all about trial and error and looking back, I would change a few things. But for now I will talk you through which products I used and how I applied them. I chose a colour theme (black, purple, dark red) and tried to stick to it, but ended up adding some shimmery silver which made it less flat. 

Products: 

NARS Pro Prime Eyeshadow Base

MAC eyeshadow in Dark Brown

MAC eyeshadow in Cranberry

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette Nooner, Darkside & Blackheart

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Verve, Busted & Blackout

Hema Liquid Liner

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero

Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara

Chanel Inimitable Mascara

MAC Captive lipstick

I started by doing the eyes. I did the same thing on both sides, despite the fact that one eye would later be covered in dark eyeshadow. I used a primer and then applied Dark Brown and Nooner in the crease and Cranberry all over the lid and blended them out. I later added Verve on the lid, but only on the visible side. Then I used my liquid liner to create a feline flick in both the inner and outer corner of the eye and then continued that line on the top and bottom lash line. I smudged some Dark Brown and Nooner on the bottom lash line, as I didn't like how intense the liquid liner looked on it's own. I would recommend applying mascara when you've almost finished the whole look. I applied several coats so that my lashes would stand out a bit more. 

I used a pencil liner to draw a faint circle around one of my eyes, starting just over the eyebrow and then filled it in with a mix of Cranberry, Darkside, Busted and Blackheart. Then using my liquid liner, I drew little petals over the circle. I filled them in using Verve. On the other side, I did a few more petals over my eyebrow and added a few dots using the liner and Verve. I then drew some squiggles and spirals around my eye, again adding dots. 

I used Cranberry and Dark Brown to contour my cheekbones and my temples and then got a bit carried away and managed to put it all over my forehead. I blended them up to my cheeks and used Blackout to intensify the contoured areas. Then I started to draw the rose with liquid liner and I'm not going to lie, it took me several tries to get it right. I started with a circle in the middle and built it out from there by drawing angular petals all around it. I filled it in with Cranberry and added some more Verve on several of the petals. (I would suggest using filling in the area where you plan on drawing the rose first as it was quite hard to fill it in afterwards.) Then I drew more spirals coming out of the rose and added some thorns. 

I used the pencil liner to draw a tear drop on my nose and filled it in. Then I applied Blackout and Blackheart over the top to set it. Sticking with the dark red/purple theme, I used Captive on my lips and then used some Blackout on the center. For the teeth, I used the liquid liner to draw some lines over my lips and extended them out past my lips. Then I drew lines over the contoured part of the cheek and connected them to the "teeth". I added more spirals and dots and decided to end there. 

To make this look creepy, I decided to add a white contact lense. I really liked the contrast of having a white eye amidst all the dark eyeshadow.

Have a great Halloween! 

Soft & Smokey

I'm usually the kind of person who doesn't bother doing their makeup on Sundays (ok sometimes I just don't bother regardless of what day it is), but my dad wanted to take us out for dinner so I decided to do something nice with my face for a change. I've been experimenting with using more eyeshadows in the crease of my eye and it actually doesn't look too horrible, so that's what I went with. I also chose a bright pink lipstick because who said autumn is all about dark colours?

I feel like photos of my favourite ever eyeshadow (MAC's Sable) never do it justice, it's so much prettier in real life so go and swatch it if you can! 

Face:

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Cool Medium 2

Manhattan Soft Compact Powder in 0 Transparent

Eyes & Eyebrows:

MAC eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown:

 to fill in my brows

Hema Eyebrow Gel:

to set them

NARS Pro Prime Eyeshadow Base:

all over my eye lid and crease

MAC eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown:

 blended through the crease

MAC eyeshadow in Dark Brown:

blended in the outer part of the lid

(add more, blend, repeat)

MAC eyeshadow in Sable:

all over the lid and on the lower lash line

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Blackout:

 on the lower lash line
MAC eyeshadow in Naked Lunch:
in the inner corner of the eye, as a highlight

Benefit They're Real Push Up Liner:

on the top lash line and smudged with a brush

Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara

Lips: 

MAC Chatterbox lipstick

A Golden Touch

Hey guys! I thought I'd do a quick FOTD because surprisingly I haven't been wearing much make-up lately, because I've been sick, and now I'm working, and I feel more comfortable without make-up on (it also means I get a tiny lie-in). I tried out my new ELF brushes, and they're great! They work really well and do exactly what I want them to do. Apologies for the lighting, today was my day off and I slept until stupid o'clock, and it got dark so quickly. Grr.

I've just noticed that the darker colours in the outer corner of my eyelid don't show up on the pictures. It just looks like a shadow, but they are there!

not sure what the pink blurry dots on my head are supposed to be

Eyes:
MAC Paint Pot in Indianwood all over lid
Urban Decay Naked Palette: Sidecar in the middle of the lid
Urban Decay Naked Palette: Darkhorse & Creep in the outer corner
Urban Decay24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero to line my eyes and waterline
Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express Mascara one coat
(because I hate when I put too much on)

Face:
Lacura Beauty Blusher from Aldi
Benefit Brows A-Go-Go Brow And Eye Shaping Kit

 Which is a lot more than what I used to use when I first started blogging! Crazy!

this one's a bit blurry because of the dodgy lighting and my shaky hand

My Make-Up Collection Just Grew A Whole Lot Bigger

As promised, here are the eyeshadow palettes I got for Christmas. I don't use much else, like foundation or bronzer etc. and Christmas day was the first day I've actually worn lipstick (apart from when I was a child and stole borrowed my mum's lipsticks.) Anyway, everyone in my family knows this which is why they got eyeshadows, which is great because I can never have too many! Yes, the Naked palette is also on here again, because I got it with the money my parents gave me. Excuse the swatches, I'm not very experienced and also the lighting could have been better. 

l-r: Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

1. Urban Decay's Naked Palette

I know, everyone and their mums has this palette. And there are about 828249059589 blog reviews, so I'll keep this short. I love this. End of.

Just kidding. For anyone who doesn't know this neutral palette, it's the first of two so far, and is considered the warmer palette of the two. It has two matte colours, Naked & Buck. The rest are all sort of creamy, shimmery colours. I'd the say the least used ones, generally, are Creep and Gunmetal, which is a shame because they are gorgeous, especially for a nice smokey look. My favourites are Toasted, Half Baked (duh), Buck and Sin. And Smog and Naked and, and and. Yes ok, all of them. The downside is it cost me 40€. Gah. But I think if you look hard enough, you'll find a bargain. I haven't yet tried the Naked2 palette, but it looks gorgeous and I've heard good things about it!

 2. MAC Paintpot in Indian Wood

I got this lovely gem from my sister's fiancé and oh.my.god. I have no words. It is the most gorgeous, beautiful, amazing colour everrrr. It's so soft and creamy and lovely. Also, I find it changes shades all the time, it really depends. Sometimes it's a dark bronzy colour, and other times a light gold. I think it depends on your skin colour, too maybe? 

3.Sleek Storm i-Divine Palette

My sister Naty got me this and it's so gorgeous! They are mineral eyeshadows and are very pigmented and they're so soft and velvety. There are two matte colours and the rest are all shimmery. You can't really tell when looking at the swatches, but there are some lovely colours too, like the dark blue and the green, which is a nice difference compared to just browns and neutrals. Love this palette and it gets a big thumbs up from me.

Warning! The following swatches are ridiculously awful.

4. Eyes Lips Face Warm Palette

My cousin Naomi got me this and is therefore held responsible for my current ELF obsession. This palette is amazing, like the others (I have no favourites).It's a mix of matte and shimmery shadows, and they feel so lovely and soft. It also contains some gorgeous purple-y colours with gold shimmers and I love them so much, purple being my favourite colour. It's amazing and I now love ELF. A lot. Which is my reason for the next post. I refuse to feel guilty.

A Little Make-Up Haul

This will have to be a haul, not a review type post, because I didn't have much time this morning as we had to get a bus to Canterbury, so I just took a few snaps, without swatching or taking eye photos. I suppose I couldn't really do much of a review anyway, as it's all new, but once I've been trying these products for quite some time I'll review them. Like I said, I went a bit crazy and although I didn't get loads of stuff, it was quite pricey (meh). But I really do need more make-up, because my stuff is all out of date or has run out. So with the help of my sister, Dani (my other sister, Naty (http://www.ohlalamaquillage.blogspot.com) has a lot of experience with make-up too, but she wasn't there unfortunately.) we picked some stuff up in Debenhams that would work for me. We also went to a Benefit store, and they did my eye make-up, and gave me some advice. I stupidly almost bought the Big Beautiful Eyes Mini Kit, when Dani stopped me by pointing out that I'd just bought the Naked Palette (doh). I just can't say no. I also got some Soap and Glory bits, and I'll do a body/hair care post soon, too!

I love the Benefit bag, it's so cute!

On to the products!

1) Naked Palette by Urban Decay

I'm sure everyone knows about this Palette, unless they've been living under a rock. Which I had. I only heard of it when my sister came home with it one day, earlier this year. Then I started seeing it all over blogs and youtube. And I thought it was so nice, but for that much money? Hm. Also, I didn't really use make-up that much, apart from eyeliner and mascara, until a few months ago. So when I was in Sephora, I decided to buy it, after much pointless debating with the boy and the bro (useless really, because to them it's just "coloured dirt for your eyes and not worth 40€). But I got it and I'm glad, because the "coloured dirt" is so nice! It feels like silk on my eyes (I don't know what I mean either. It's just so soft!). I haven't tried all of them yet, but so far my favourites are Smog, Buck and Toasted. 

1) Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero

I really needed a new eye liner and my sister insisted on getting my a special Christmas present and said to choose something from Mac. We couldn't find it in the shop in the end, so we looked around and found the Urban Decay counter. I'd heard a lot about the eye pencils and they always looked so nice and creamy, sort of. So I picked on and she got it for me and let me have it early! So thanks Dani! It's so nice and easy to use, so so far it gets a thumbs up from me! I can't remember how much it cost, but I'll ask Dani tomorrow.

1) Benefit Brows A-Go-Go Brow And Eye Shaping Kit

This is what the Benefit shop assistant (is that what they're called? I really don't know) put on my brows. I don't actually have a clue what to do with eyebrows, so it was good to have a quick lesson! It has two eyeshadows, a tinted wax to keep the brows in place, an eye pencil, a brush to apply the wax and the shadows, a highlight, a bottom waterline colour to lighten your eyes and tweezers! I think it was £26,50, which is perhaps a bit too expensive for me, but you do get a lot of stuff so maybe it's ok. I'll admit, my eyebrows do look a lot better, because there isn't much of them, despite the fact that I don't pluck them often

1) Benefit They're Real Mascara

I'd actually just bought my favourite Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express, which was £7, something from Boots, when we went to the Benefit store. Dani had mentioned Benefit's They're Real Mascara and how she absolutely loved it, so while I was being made over, she asked about it and the woman went and got it and put it on my lashes and it really did make a huge difference! So I decided to try it out, and bought it and I think it was £18,50 (not sure anymore), which is expensive for a mascara but it really is good. Although! I did find it clumpy on the first few tries, and I asked Dani and she said that she'd thought that too but after a couple of uses, it works fine. So after washing off the days make-up tonight, I put it on again (what a waste, right?) and it was clumpless! So that was three tries, and now it's great. It's quite small though, which is why I'm not too keen on the price. But oh well, we'll see.

1) Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker in Candy Gloss ( I think)

Lastly, while in Boots, Dani and I spotted this huge Soap and Glory travel wash bag thing, which looked more like a case. Almost immediately, a shop assistant started telling us that these were the last three in the shop (although we'd spotted a bunch in the window, but maybe they'd been reserved or something) and that it was worth £80 but only cost £25 so it was a really great deal. I've never really tried Soap and Glory but I've heard it's great from my sister and her friends, so we decided to get it and split it between us. There are ten items in it, so we got five each for £12,50 really, which is good! I can't quite remember everything that was in it, because my sister has most of the stuff with her, but like I said, I'll do a post at one point. We actually decided to give some bits to people as Christmas presents, so we got 2-3 bits for ourselves. But it's still a good idea, and all the products smell so lovely! I got some face wipes, a body lotion, a body butter aaaand this lipgloss! I really wanted a new lipgloss, and this one is such a nice neutral colour, so it doesn't really lighten my lips and make me look weird, but gives them a really nice shine. It's supposed to plump the lips I think, because it stung quite a bit, which is a bad point of course. I don't know if it's supposed to sting a lot or if I'm allergic to something in it, but it wasn't really comfortable which is such a shame really because the colour is gorgeous.

And that concludes my first make-up haul! What are you loving at the moment? Have you tried any of these products, or do you have any suggestions for me? I'd love to know!